The Sunday morning news. [volume] (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1886-1891, 1887-05-22
GREAT WILL CONSPIRACY.
A PART OF THE UNTOLD HISTORY OF
THE Fight FOR LEWIS'S MILLIONS.


ate the WidOw-HOw She was Caught
and How She Escaped-A Race for a
Vanishing Proof.
''Mrs. Lewis who figured as the widow in
the great Lewis will CASE said a young
lawyer who was conspicuous in working up
the case to SUNDAY MORNING News man
the other day, is somewhere around
New York engaged in about the same kind
of blaekmail and confidence schemes, bat
not on SO large q scale. 1 have heard of
her once, in connection with blackmail-
ing case since. The conspirators who
picked her out to contest for recognition as
the widow of the dead million aire, and for
a share Of the million dollars which he left
to be applied to the payment of the Fed
eral debt, showed marked shrewdness in
picking her out for contestant. She was
SO thoroughly posted as to the habits and
surroundings of the old Hoboken miser,
that | was unable to make up my mind
whether she had ever seen Lewis or not.
While she was in Jail at Trenton waiting to
give away her fellow conspirators, asked
her:
Il never saw him in my life was her
answer
How then did it happen that some
people honestly testified that they had
known you as Mrs. Lewis?' | asked.
"sWell,' she replied, I had been the
wife of 4 ganbler named Lewis, and had
lived around at those several places with
him. AL Lacia and the crowd had to do
was to change the description to fit the
aft t.
for that reason that / was picked out to be
the widow
'tHosSdid she even get away from the
authoriiles?" asked the reporter.
'sWeli, that is one of the mysteries I
have never yet solved. The Attorney Gen.
eral decided that as she had turned States
evidence she had earned her freedom: and
yet there was some question about the
propriety of discharging her. No formal
discharge was ever made out for her, but
the doors were left open and she was al
lowed to escape. 1t is likely that she was
told that she had only to cross the river
from Trenton into Pennsylvania to escape
the jurisdiction of the Court. and the
officials probably paid her way if they did
not pilot her across the Delaware. 1t was
only by the merest accident" the young
lawyer went on, ''that we struck the proof
| that she was woman of the town. That
wss essential to our case One of my
clerks had been off on little racket, and
on his way back from Long Island he
stopped at one of the cyprian resorts up
town. There he met young woman who
called herself Lucy. She learned that he
was from Jersey, and she inquired Incl
1-ientAlly if ne lad heard of the woman
who figured in the Lewis will case
Through her he learned that Mrs. Lewis
was we'll known to some of the women of
easy morals in that district. She said
Mrs. Lewis, as she pretended to be, had
been an inmate of house kept by Mad
anne Brown. We huHted her up, and had
an interview with her. She appointed
another day for an interview and we were
suspicious that she had some job on hand
with the conspirators, and so we never
went there again. Bat We have since
learned that Charley Winfield, who was
counsel for Mrs. Lewis, you remember,
sat in clothes press in her room the big
gest part of that day waiting for us to
come and hear what we had to say"
''Let me see," the reporter remarked,
trying to recall the circumstances. sit
was the marriage certificate which she
produced in proof OF her marriage that
gave the conspiracy away, wasn't it p
|
it. she claimed that the marriage had
been solemnized and the certificate written
in 1858. We found the man who made
the plate from which the marriage certifi-
cate had been printed. His name was
Tibbals. We showed HIN the certificate.
He said that he had not made the plate
for that certificate until some time in 1872
or 1873 The original plate had been made
in 1856, but the lines had been altered
| from time to time till 1872 or '73. The
marriage certificate she produced, not
withstandir the evidences of age its ex-
posure and subsection to chemical process
had made it present, showed only the
marks in the plate made in 70, and could
not possibly have been printed from the
| 1856 plate. That was proof positive that
the certificate of the marriage could not
have been filed in earlier than u. We
got the Y plate in our possession, that
| is, W had it in our possession as Govern
ment counsel. But some of us let Tibbats
| take it to New York with him one day.
"'Good God! exclaimed ex-Attorney
| General Gilchrist who represented the
| Government, we must have that back al
once.
"Re rushed a man over for it. Nichols
and some of the counsel for the conspira
| tors over there, when the man reach
Tibbals negotiated for the plate. If they
had ever got it, our case would have beer
destroyed-one proof would have beer
taken away. A blank check was taken L
| Tibbals, and ter some persuasion he was
induced to sell it back to the Government
for $780,
During the progress of the great sui
Government counsel went to Jamaica, il
the Indies, where old man Lewis had come
from originally to learn something of hi
habits. There it will be remembered, i
was learned that he had left a wife anC
family behind him. BY being solicited fo
information they became awar of their leg
al rights to the property, and they came OF
here afterwards to contest the will The,
| ,vau+ h nb IN Iomo;oo with ohou+ eQnn mi